Santa Baby
by xxxraquelita
Summary: There wasn't much Santana wouldn't do to keep the magic of Christmas alive for Brittany.


Christmas Eve was always the most stressful night of Santana Lopez-Pierce's year.

A good few months of Santana's year were spent on Christmas plans. She was thankful that they had a neighbor who was willing to let her keep the presents she bought for Brittany in their spare closet. She knew that Brittany always hid the presents she got for Santana in the same place ever year, but she never looked. There was so much planning and hiding and secrets, and she hated keeping secrets from Brittany but she knew how happy she always was on Christmas and that made it all worth it.

She had been doing it for years. All through the years when they were growing up, she had kind of stayed off to the side when it came to Brittany's belief in Santa Claus. Santana had never really believed in him, but she didn't see anything wrong with other people believing. When they got to high school was when she took a more active role in the whole Santa debacle. Brittany's mom had been glad to finally have an ally.

After they got married, Santana knew it was all on her. She was sneaky enough, and while she didn't like the secrets she was good at keeping them. For years now, she'd been Santa Claus to Brittany. It had been far too easy to explain why she never got any presents from Santa. A little coal in the stocking each year went a long way. It wasn't that hard to believe that she would continually be on the naughty list, after all.

Brittany hadn't made it easy that year. Their new apartment actually had a fireplace and she had been so excited that Santa wouldn't have to work extra hard to find a way to get their presents to them. Despite the fact that he was the most magical person in the whole wide world, Brittany had worried so much that somehow the lack of fireplace in their previous apartments would stop him from being able to get in.

The fireplace's presence was the reason that Brittany was sprawled out on the couch on her stomach, her arm draped over the side and her hand dangling to the floor, completely asleep. Right there in front of the Christmas tree.

Santana had gotten all the presents from the neighbor's house earlier that day, and she had them stashed in the trunk of her car. They were all wrapped already, thankfully, and she had even gone so far as to make sure the hinges on the door from the garage weren't going to squeak when she opened the door. She propped the door and quietly moved the gifts in under the tree. Closing her trunk was tricky, because it always was going to make a sound, but she did what she could to keep it quiet.

Feeling pretty good about her accomplishments, she snuck a cookie off the table by the tree and polished it off in two bites, washing it down with the milk. That was the other great part about Christmas Eve - cookies and milk by the fireplace. She was just about to bite into the second cookie when she heard Brittany's voice from behind her.

"Santana?" She froze. Brittany was awake, but for how long? She had been so involved with trying to be quiet that she hadn't bothered to check to see if she was still asleep at any point. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face the other girl, trying to look as innocent as possible. That wasn't an easy look for Santana. "Are you eating Santa's cookies?"

"Oh. Yeah." That wasn't exactly something she could deny. She still had one of them in her hand, after all.

"And you were putting presents under the tree?" Well now she really had to think fast. Being caught red handed was not something that had happened to her before, and she hadn't ever thought up a possible story to tell in case that ever happened.

"I was, but only because Santa asked me to." Brittany's eyes widened and Santana set the cookie back up on the table.

"You saw Santa? Like, _tonight _you saw Santa?"

"I saw Santa," Santana said, brushing Brittany's hair out of her face. Even though she was clearly excited, she still looked half-asleep. That was good, because even though Santana's mind was moving so fast to try and think of an explanation, she wasn't sure it would be believable if Brittany was completely alert. "You know how you could never figure out how he got to everyone's house and got all the presents in the right place all so fast in one night?"

"Magic," Brittany said with a nod, sinking back down against the couch and watching her.

"Right, magic. Except it's not just magic. Sometimes he asks people to help, and that's what he asked me. He knows how much you love him and he wanted to make extra sure everything got right where it was supposed to be, and he knows how much I love you and know exactly what you like. So he asked me if I would bring in the presents for him, so everything would be absolutely perfect for you." She paused, then quickly added, "and he said I could have the cookies, since I helped. I snuck some extras in his pocket, though, when he wasn't looking."

Brittany was staring at her, and she didn't say anything right away when Santana was done with her explanation. Then she gave a little giggle, reaching out to touch the Santa hat that Santana had forgotten she was wearing. Brittany had put it on her while they were watching _White Christmas_ and she'd never taken it off. "That is so amazing, that you got to do that."

Santana laughed, internally sighing in relief that Brittany seemed to have believed her. She didn't know what she would have done if everything had fallen apart just then. Brittany rubbed at her eyes, yawning and reaching her arms out to her wife. That was her way of asking to be picked up without having to say so. Santana got up to her feet and pulled Brittany into her arms, smiling a little as she felt the other girl's limbs wrap around her tightly.

"My Santana," Brittany mumbled as she got set down on the bed. Santana crawled in beside her and pulled the blankets up, tossing the Santa hat off to the side. She had just nestled up against Brittany when the blonde girl started giggling again. Propping herself up on an elbow, Santana looked down at her and quirked an eyebrow as if inquiring what cause the giggle fit.

"You're Santana Claus."


End file.
